Outlook for mentoring program at DP High School looks good

Published 6:00 pm, Monday, December 27, 2004

THE MENTORING PROGRAM at Deer Park High School recently passed an important milestone and the outlook for the character building program looks very positive.

"I heard from people involved in mentoring programs at other school districts that we should give it at least three years," said DPHS Principal Ronda Kouba. "We are at that point right now and we are definitely not going to give up on it. There have been some naysayers who don't believe it's worth the effort. I think many teachers find it very comfortable to work with just the students they know and it can be had to get out of a comfort zone. But I have to keep going back to my gut feeling and that is that we are doing what is best for the students. I believe that it is worth it because I have heard many success stories. One mentor recently helped a student to find a job. Another success story involved a student who was discouraged because her GPA was low and she had no plans for college. Her mentor encouraged her and helped her get into college. So, we are definitely going to keep the mentoring program going."

Kouba started the mentoring program about three years ago after a trip to the Farmers Branch-Carrolton school district when she saw mentoring groups in action and witnessed first-hand some positive results produced by mentoring.

"Our school is so large and with about 2,500 students, I noticed that some were falling through the cracks, so to speak, and do not seem to have enough opportunity to get involved in something positive," Kouba said. "I remember that I had such positive experiences when I attended high school and I think every young person should have a chance to have a positive connection with at least one caring adult. Also, young people tend to hang out with just their group of friends, their little clique. The mentoring program forces them to get outside that and to build relationships with peers outside of their clique. That helps them to grow and to develop in a positive way."

The DPHS mentoring program is based on the Search Institute's 40 Developmental Assets, which stress character development.

The format for the mentoring program is simple. An adult mentor gets together with a group of DPHS students once a month to discuss various positive character traits and to build meaningful, lasting relationships. The adult mentor is encouraged to go beyond just getting together with students once a month. The mentor may, for example, send birthday cards to students or keep in contact in other ways. The mentor group stays together through the tenth, eleventh and the twelfth grades.

Kouba coordinates curriculum for mentor groups and writes the lesson plans. The most recent mentor sessions focused on integrity, which simply defined means "being honest with yourself and others." The following is an example of a "character dilemma" that an adult mentor could use to lead group discussion:

"Your friend Evan is popular, well-liked and a great soccer player. Your school's socer team is competing for first place in the district and Evan is key to winning. During math class this morning you saw him cheat on an important test. No one else noticed. If the teacher finds out, Evan would be kicked off the soccer team. Is it your responsibility to report what you saw? Is it anyone's responsibility? What are the consequences of not reporting?"

Every faculty member at DPHS heads up a monthly mentoring group. Also, many educators from the DPISD central administration office head up monthly mentoring sessions. Each group includes an adult mentor and about 20 students. In order to have mentor groups for all 2,500 DPHS students to participate in, Kouba had to go outside DPISD and recruit adults from the community.

One such mentor is Chris Richey, pastor of San Jacinto Baptist Church in Deer Park. Richey said mentoring with DPHS students has been a learning experience for him.

"My experience has been very positive and I think it has been also positive for the young people," Richey said. "It's been great to get to know these young people and to find out how things really are with them. We adults may think we know how young people are, but through this mentoring program I have actual real-life experience."

Richey said he thinks the social environment among young people is different now than whenever he was a teen-ager.

"It is different now in some ways than it was when I was a teen," he said. "It seems that young people nowadays seem to be more open about nearly everything and they seem to be more passionate and outspoken about what they believe or don't believe. For example, when I was a teen we avoided discussing things like homosexuality or drug use, for example. Young people now openly discuss those sort of issues, which, I guess, is a reflection of our society and our culture. It seems the good kids are getting better and the bad kids are getting worse, so there is more of a separation between the good and the bad."

Richey said mentoring has not only been a learning experience, it has also been rewarding.

"I am excited to take part in something like this that is so different that what I normally do," he said. "It's one of the highlights of my life right now and I always look forward to getting together with these young people. I am glad the school district has the mentor program."

This is Richey's second year to serve as a mentor. His group consists of himself and 13 students, who were juniors last year and are now seniors. He said getting started was the most difficult part.

"During the first three months it was sort of hard to break the ice and the students did not talk very much," he said. "That might be because I am a pastor, but I intentionally will not talk about church-related issues. I wanted to develop a natural friendship and bond with the students. After we got to know one another better, all of us began to move from the more superficial things to have genuine interest in one another and we began to have honest discussions. For example, many of the students expressed a genuine interest and concern for me whenever I went through the loss of a relative."

Another adult mentor working with a group of 18 DPHS juniors is Sam Shurtleff, who graduated from DPHS in 1982 and who also works with young people through the Art Park Players theater group and the Deer Park Success Project. Like Chris Richey, Shurtleff said that his experience with the DPHS students has been worthwhile and rewarding.

"One imporant aspect of the mentoring is that young people get to know you as a real person and not as some mean adult who is ready to rap them on the knuckles," Shurtleff said. "I think it is very important that a young person develops a positive relationship with at least one adult who is not a relative. Several adults who are not in my family helped me to develop during my formative teen-age years. Research shows that whenever a teen develops a good relationship with at least one adult (who is not a relative), then many positives begin to develop for him or her. Those positives build exponentially with each adult the young person builds relationships with. I believe that most young people are yearning for that sort of positive relationship with adults, even though some may not be aware of it and some might not like to admit it."

Shurtleff said that keeping the mentoring group together throughout the challenging and often trying times of high school is important.

"It takes time to develop meaningful relationships, so it's important for the adult mentors to be committed to the long haul," he said.